The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced a multi-year venture through which Second Spectrum, a Genius Sports technology solution, will become the optical tracking provider to the league. With this investment, the WNBA becomes the first women’s professional sports league in the US with leaguewide 3D tracking data.
The Second Spectrum system, set to launch with the tip-off of the WNBA’s 2024 regular season on Tuesday, May 14, will use an array of cameras arranged in each WNBA arena to collect low-latency, 3D player pose and ball-tracking data, enabling a wide range of basketball and commercial applications.
The investment in 3D player pose and ball-tracking data will unlock new coaching and front-office capabilities for WNBA teams, including player and team analysis, coaching strategy tools and more robust sports science capabilities. For the first time, WNBA teams will have access to real-time advanced statistics measuring shot quality, shooter impact, paint touches, play-type efficiencies, points per chance, contest quality, and other defensive matchup data as well as metrics quantifying player performance such as maximum speeds and total distance covered.
“Technology continues to fundamentally change the sports landscape. Deploying state-of-the-art optical tracking technology through Genius Sports will deliver rich data to our teams that they can leverage to enhance player performance while informing in-game strategy and enable a new wave of insights and media elements for fans,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
“We are delighted to partner with the WNBA to help them unlock the next generation of data analytics through our revolutionary optical tracking capabilities. For the first time ever, every WNBA team will have access to our groundbreaking suite of analytics, video production tools and our advanced tracking system that underpins the basketball ecosystem,” said Jack Davison, Chief Commercial Officer at Genius Sports, said.
“It is really exciting that our league is adopting this type of technology. The system capabilities are far more comprehensive than anything before seen in the WNBA and will greatly enhance strategic planning across the league,” said New York Liberty General Manager Jonathan Kolb.
All official tracking data will be integrated into Genius Sports’ basketball insights and analytics engine.
